The Illawarra and South Coast bore the brunt of the wild
weather, with these areas accounting for more than half the
calls for help, while the Hunter Valley, Blue Mountains and
Sydney were also hit, with gusts at Sydney Airport reaching
82km/h.

Endeavour Energy emergency crews have spent the evening
working to restore power to approximately 12,000 homes,
mostly in the Illawarra and on the South Coast.

"In the past two hours, we have restored supply to about 7000
customers, however there has been further damage in
previously unaffected areas, particularly in the area between
Wollongong and Nowra," the utility said in a statement on
Tuesday evening.

"At this stage, we are expecting to restore supply to many
customers later tonight if the strong winds abate as
forecast."

But some families could spend the night in the dark,
Endeavour said: "(There may) be customers in outlying areas
where we are unable to undertake repairs until tomorrow
morning due to the extent of damage caused to our network."

A severe weather warning remains in place and it's expected
winds will pick up again on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology says coastal gale-force winds will
ease overnight, before redeveloping on Wednesday morning.

The bureau predicts damaging winds with gusts of up to 90km/h
may return to the Illawarra from early on Wednesday, and
Sydney and parts of the South Coast may be affected late
morning or early afternoon.

The SES said more than 100 emergency crews were still on the
ground, and some would work through the night.

"They'll be out there for hours and hours," an SES
spokeswoman said.

"But those guys and girls really love what they do, so for
them it's a pleasure to be out there helping people."